I always had an interest in our family genealogy. I am part of large Italian family; one of eight children. My parents moved out of the Chicago suburbs in 1958 and had their dream home built. My grandfather, who was by then a widower, moved in with us and lived in our home for the rest of his life. In the mid 1960’s my family converted the upstairs bedrooms into an apartment and my father’s parents moved in upstairs. How lucky were we kids, to have two grandfathers and one grandmother live with us?

In 2000 my husband, daughter, sister and I spent two weeks in Italy. It was my dream to visit the town where my ancestors came from. My mother thought our ancestors were from a town called L’Aquila so that is the town we toured on our vacation. We climbed the hills and reveled in the beauty.

We purchased souvenirs from L’Aquila and took hundreds of pictures. At the end of the day my sister and I sat on a bench in the town square and talked of our ancestors walking across these same brick pathways to do their shopping. What a sense of familiarity we felt sharing the same space, but different time, with our ancestors!

In 2010 my husband and I took a trip to Utah stopping at Salt Lake City and we went into the Family History Library. I spent a few hours researching and my head was swimming with ideas about creating a website and building a family tree. When we returned home I signed up for an account at Ancestry.com. I made my first entrees with my family names. Soon I had little leaves shaking at me, enticing me to “click here”.

In the past two years I’ve met an astounding number of new family members that I didn’t know I had! I also discovered family members who live in Pescasseroli, Italy. It turns out that my great grandparents were born in Pescasseroli, not in L’Aquila. Darn, this could only mean one thing. A return trip to Italy would have to be scheduled.

I appreciate everyone’s help with information and photos. I welcome any new documents, photos, and comments. You can email me at travelingbears@comcast.net.

Undefined by age, a 21st-er has embraced technology and expects to use all sorts of technological tools in their family history research. How can traditional genealogical societies adapt and appeal to this new kind of genealogist? Let’s share ideas and gain feedback on what works, enabling our genealogical societies to prosper in this century.

My 2nd great grandmother, Mary Jane (Boroff) Cross moved to the Northwest corner of Iowa with her 5 sons after the death of her husband, Basil Noah Cross in 1885. Of the five boys, my great grandfather, Henry Cross, stayed in Clay County, Iowa where I was born and raised on a farm just a few miles from where he lived so many years ago.

I have always loved history and I was raised with a keen sense of who my immediate family was from Grandpa Henry to present. But I wanted to know who came before, so a little over 30 years ago I started researching my family tree.

In this blog I will share that journey and the interesting people I found along the way, from the Midwest back to Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and finally England on my father’s side. On my mother’s side the concentration is Texas, Kentucky, and North Carolina where a Texas Ranger, a Baptist preacher, a chief of police from San Antonio and quite a few Confederates join the story.

I have recently started researching my grandchildren’s paternal side which has taken me into totally new areas as my son-in-law descends from French Canadians. So from time to time you learn of the Courchene family with their New England and Canadian roots.

This will primarily be a genealogy blog, but from time to time I may share a few of the other things that interest me.

I have a lot of questions still waiting to be answered and the research continues. So come along with me, as I journey back into my past, one ancestor at a time.

Maybe you’re visiting this blog for the first time – well, this where I talk about Richard J Loveday, my Great, Great grandfather.

I am the fourth generation Loveday male of this line and was fortunate enough to have been left a wonderful FamilyHistory book from my father George in 1977. Since then I have added to the wealth of knowledge about the Loveday family and continually keep looking for more.

In 1846 Richard and wife Bridget and three children, Ann, Richard and Thomas boarded the “Royal George” in England and sailed for Port Adelaide, arriving on a cold day, June 26th 1847.

Richard was 29 years of age on arrival and served with the British Colonial Government as a Royal Sapper & Miner for 11 years from 1847-1858.

During this period his wife, Bridget Ann died of cancer on July 15th 1852 and he subsequently married Susannah Sarah Sadgrove on May 5th, 1853. Six children were born of this marriage; Alice Susannah, Henry George Sadgrove, Alexander William, Emily Agnes, Frances Jane, Ernest Alfred.

On the 1st. January 1859, when a pensioner of Royal Sappers & Miners, he was a appointed to Post Lithographer, 1st Class, in the Department of Survey in the State Government of South Australia, established 1854, and later he was transferred to Field Staff of Department of survey as a Surveyor on January 1st.1860.

In the year 1868, R.J.Loveday, Surveyor was domiciled in the District of Hindmarsh, ie. Reedbeds (Findon) where the last five of his children of the second marriage, were born. (Adelaide Almanac)

It is surmised that about this time – 1875-80 – R.J.Loveday moved to Salisbury where he remained until his death on December 15th 1883. The Medical Report shows the cause of death to be Bright’s disease

He was buried in Church of England cemetery, Salisbury, where his wife Susannah Sarah was later buried on March 31st. 1905. The grave and headstone were in excellent condition in 1977.

Richard John Loveday left his wife Susannah, 6 sons and 5 daughters

Whatever, I’m glad you’re here, and invite you to wander around and explore all you want.

Recently, I have been going through my grandfather’s filing cabinets as I help my grandmother clean out their home. I’ve stumbled upon all sorts of little interesting tidbits, photos and things that he has written. I made this blog to share them. Enjoy!

Translation (via Google Translate): Welcome to Canary Island Genealogy, a space dedicated to the family history of the inhabitants of the Canary Islands, their origins or ancestry beyond their borders. We aim to bring together in this place articles that help us to know the people of our country in previous centuries. If you want to help, send your work by email. Come back whenever you feel like. We are waiting here for you!

Because of many years researching genealogy, I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading historical newspapers. More times than I can count, I have been sidetracked away from my original goal (an obituary, wedding announcement, etc) by a particularly interesting story. Whether it’s about the man with the wooden leg who started a fire, advertisements claiming their product can cure everything from a cough to a arthritis to baldness, or more serious subjects relating to long forgotten obituaries, or politics of the time, each gives a unique view into our history. I will be attempting to capture some of that here, in this blog. Should be fun to see what we can discover!

As we were cleaning out some of my grandparents’ (maternal) things a few months ago I found several cigar boxes packed full of letters. They turned out to be letters that my grandfather had written to my grandmother and they spanned from 1932 to 1952. They were high school sweethearts but went to different colleges and many of the letters were during that separation. My grandfather’s work took him away from home often later on and the rest of the letters cover that time period.

I started this blog to share them and to eventually be able to turn them into a book for relevant family members. My grandfather passed away ten years ago and my grandmother about three years ago. This is a really special way to get to know a part of their lives that I wasn’t around for.

I am a twenty-something recent graduate with a passion for genealogy. I grew up learning about and loving genealogy, and I started my own family history research more than two years ago. My research is focused primarily in New England and Québec.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a fascination with genealogy and family history. I was the 10-year-old who went on family vacations to places like Gettysburg and Plymouth. For a long time I was content listening to my dad’s theories and latest research, but I was also incredibly excited to help out whenever I could.

Just over two years ago I began my own family history quest. I’m fortunate enough to still have both of my parents around as resources, but I’ve primarily been blazing my own research path. School kept me busy for a while, but I have a lot more time now to dedicate to genealogy and blogging.

By starting this blog, I hope to share both my personal family history knowledge and research skills with other members of the genealogy community while learning new tricks and meeting new people along the way.

This blog will follow my efforts to locate the burial locations of my ancestors. This will include the search for the ones buried in Russell County and the ones that are buried elsewhere. I am always searching for more info sources and I will post them here when I find them. If you wish to share a source, I would be happy to hear from you! Thanks for visiting!

White and Chaffin Family History is my record of my search for ancestors here in the United States and their countries of origin. Genealogy is a long time passion of mine and I hope you will join me.

I am a fifty-something Mother, wife, grandmother, student, and fulltime HIT worker who has been working on my family history for at least three decades. I love the search and love the discoveries even more! I would be happy to work with anyone interested in the same families!

Welcome to my blog, Trails To Texas. I hope you enjoy the photos and stories about my family, both my blood kin as well as my in-laws, and maybe some shirt-tailed cousins and just good friends whose families somehow made it to Texas. Please don’t hesitate to send me your photos, stories, and suggestions.

If you are interested in seeing the Cooper-Bird-Sauls-Thorp & Associated Families Tree on Ancestry.com, send me an email and I will make you a member so you can see the living people. At this time I have about 14,000 people in the tree, with over 1,500 photos and documents posted. As a contributor you can post photos and stories about our common ancestors and relatives on the tree.

About Thomas MacEntee

What happens when a “tech guy” with a love for history gets laid off during The Great Recession of 2008? You get Thomas MacEntee, a genealogy professional who’s also a blogger, educator, author, social media connector, online community builder and more.
Thomas was laid off after a 25-year career in the information technology field, so he started his own genealogy-related business called High Definition Genealogy. He also created an online community of over 3,000 family history bloggers known as GeneaBloggers. His most recent endeavor, Hack Genealogy, is an attempt to “re-purpose today’s technology for tomorrow’s genealogy.”
Thomas describes himself as a lifelong learner with a background in a multitude of topics who has finally figured out what he does best: teach, inspire, instigate, and serve as a curator and go-to-guy for concept nurturing and inspiration. Thomas is a big believer in success, and that we all succeed when we help each other find success.